Returnee Migrant Worker Chooses to Work in His Community Than Going Abroad

6th March 2019

Rambahadur (Ram) is a 40 year old returnee migrant worker. He lives with his wife Reena and three daughters in the village of Ickchung, in rural Makwanpur. Having worked in Arabian Gulf countries for almost five years, he now no longer wants to go back again, but, stay and work in his own village.

“The earnings from my work abroad were spent in building and making over this house in village. I even started working as a part time mason here. Meanwhile, my wife Reena received livelihoods support from Raleigh Nepal volunteers.

Raleigh ICS volunteers in Nepal worked with Reena to improve the buildings used to house their livestock. Improvements to the building have also allowed the family to utilise any waste created by livestock as compost, to diversify and boost their farm’s vegetable production. The compost manure has replaced usage of synthetic urea as a chemical fertilizer which is a healthy agricultural practice and better for the environment.

Improved Goat Shed in Ram’s house

“An improved goat shed has allowed us to collect the urine and faecal materials easily. We use this to prepare bio compost manure and put it on our vegetables. Our vegetables are growing healthier and have got a great market in the city” says, 35 years old Reena.

In fact, Reena was able to make one lakh fifty thousand NPR (1323.98 US Dollar) this season, just by selling mustard green from her vegetable farming. All of her vegetable products are organic. Furthermore, she also grows mustard and sells mustard oil, green beans along with green onions and garlic. Before, they had to buy vegetable for their household. This has significantly boosted their family income.

Ram and Reena’s vegetable garden

I saw the benefits of farming and got inspired by the works of other village farmers. I now plan to live and work as a full-time commercial vegetable farmer in the village and has also joined Reena in commercial vegetable farming.

Our neighbours (Panchu Thing’s Story from Ickchung) did commercial tomato farming after being involved in the ICS livelihood sessions and training. And we can see they are succeeding, I do not have that huge land for commercial tomato farming, but I have my goats, goat shed, manure and vegetables.”- chuckles Ram.

“I sell around 10 goats per year and earn 40,000 NPR ( The goat shed improvement has allowed the goats to grow healthier as the shed is cleaner compared to the old goat shed. I will expand the goat shed and add more goats which means added manure for my vegetables.” says Ram.

Goats inside the improved goat shed

With the income from selling goats and vegetables, Ram and Reena can manage the cost of their living and also cover the cost of education, living and rent of their eldest daughter Pabitra who is a high school student in a nearby city.

To ensure the sustainability of his family’s livelihood following the ICS programme, Ram Bahadur expects to have refresher training in livestock management. He anticipates the engagement of additional farmers through such refresher training.

Raleigh Nepal, in 2018, through its ICS programme in Ickchung, helped community members build poly tunnels for off-season vegetable production, improve livestock infrastructure, and delivered a variety of awareness raising and training sessions related to livelihoods and agricultural income resilience. This included training on livestock management, kitchen garden, organic vegetable farming, and compost manure making.